Processes of this type are known for example from the DE 16 35 965 A1 or the DE 24 36 450 A1 which originate from the same inventor as the subject matter of the present patent. Knitted goods and knitted sections in tubular form, such as pullover body sections or pullover arms for example, which were connected and stitched together during further finishing steps, were knitted on the flat bed knitting machines described therein. It was not possible with the conventional processes to produce, in particular, closed finished fabrics on flat bed machines at low cost and thus in an economical manner or to carry out bind-off processes on flat bed knitting machines. A binding-off or reducing of the tube, perhaps for creating the shoulder parts, was basically possible of course, but, due to being uneconomical, it was not therefore utilised in practice or at least only to a limited extent because coarsely ridged linking seams occurred in the finished fabric, approximately in the shoulder region, which was both aesthetically displeasing and disadvantageous when wearing the article of clothing. Conventional binding-off processes not using auxiliary needle beds are known for example from the DE 32 03 028 A1, in which a transfer process from the front to the rear needle bed or vice versa is carried out, wherein more than one stitch is made to lie on a knitting needle by means of corresponding racking, and this needle is then knitted.
A process for knitting tubular fabrics and for reducing the article knitted in tubular form is known from the DE 40 06 877 A1, wherein auxiliary needle beds are likewise utilised. Therein, all the stitches are transferred from one auxiliary needle bed to the needle bed associated with the other auxiliary needle bed and thereafter they are re-transferred. Thereby, a racking occurs on the one hand between the respective rear main and auxiliary needle bed, which are not displaced relative to each other and between the front main and auxiliary needle bed, which are likewise not displaced relative to each other, on the other.
All of these known processes bear the disadvantage that the binding-off regions exhibit ridges which is both very detrimental to the aesthetic effect of the article of clothing, perhaps a pullover or a knitted dress, and moreover, is disadvantageous for the wearer of the clothing.